WASHINGTON — Democrat Rep. Jared Polis broke away from many of his colleagues Tuesday — including fellow Ds in Colorado — and voted against raising the debt ceiling because he said the GOP-led process on the vote was a “sham.”

“Congress must work in a bipartisan, responsible and fair way to reduce the federal deficit and debt,” he said. “House Republicans have instead chosen a partisan path and may endanger our economic recovery with their sham debt limit vote today.”

Tuesday’s vote was called a “suspension of the rules” vote, which generally limits debate. The proposal to increase the debt ceiling failed, 97-318.

Democrat Reps. Diana DeGette and Ed Perlmutter voted to increase the debt limit, both calling out Republicans in Tuesday’s vote for making a “game” out of the country’s fragile economic recovery.

“Our country has always paid its bills,” Perlmutter said. “Unfortunately, House Republicans continue to gamble and play games with our economic security by voting to default on our country’s loans.”

Republicans say the largely procedural vote was meant to send a message to President Obama, whose administration has asked Congress to approve a debt ceiling increase by the first week of August. The ceiling is set now at $14.3 trillion.

Most Republicans, including Colorado’s four GOP House members, say they would consider increasing the nation’s debt limit, but only if it was attached to dramatic spending cuts. The debt ceiling has been raised 10 times since 2001.

“After tonight’s vote, I am more optimistic that the president and Democrat leadership will get serious about negotiating specific spending cuts and enacting real budget reforms,” said Rep. Cory Gardner, R-Yuma, Tuesday.

Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Aurora, agreed. “I can only hope that by decisively defeating the president’s call for adding to our nation’s debt burden that he can be forced to accept deep reductions in spending.”

Sal Pace, a state representative from Pueblo, officially announced his candidacy today for U.S. House of Representatives.

WASHINGTON — State Rep. Sal Pace, a 34-year-old Pueblo political science professor and father of two, said Tuesday he is launching a campaign to run as a Democrat for U.S. House of Represenatives in the 3rd Congressional District.

Pace will run against Rep. Scott Tipton, a Republican businessman from Cortez, who was first elected to federal office in 2010.

Pace said Tuesday he has trips planned to all four corners of the large district.

“I want to hear concerns and I want to hear about what Washington does well and what it shouldn’t do,” Pace said. “People care about government accountability and transparency and protecting our rural way of life in Southern Colorado and Western Colorado.”

Pace is the first person in a major party who has committed openly to running against a sitting House member in the Colorado delegation.

U.S. House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Maryland, told the Denver Post’s editorial board a couple weeks ago that he had conversations with Pace and state Senate President Brandon Shaffer, who would run against freshman Republican Rep. Cory Gardner in the 4th Congressional District.

Both Pace and Shaffer said they were “committed” to beating Tipton and Gardner, Hoyer said.

Since then, though, Shaffer has yet to formally announce. After not returning Denver Post calls for a couple weeks, he said in an email Tuesday that he was “flattered by the attention, but sincerely want to take some time to recharge my batteries after a busy (legislative) session, and discuss the decision with my family. I’m not trying to be disrespectful or rude, I just want to be thoughtful before making a decision.”

Republicans Tuesday leaped on this, saying Colorado voters deserve honesty and that Shaffer should “come clean about his congressional ambitions,” said Tyler Q. Houlton, a spokesman at the National Republican Congressional Committee.

The web domain “SHAFFERFORCOLORADO.COM” was purchased by an unknown person recently.

Pace, who moved to Durango as a teenager and graduated from Fort Lewis College and Louisiana State University, said his “values are in sync with people in the 3rd Congressional District.”

Asked about Pace in a radio interview Tuesday, Tipton played down the announcement, and did not mention Pace by name.

“We may have a number of Democrat candidates,” he said to the Cari and Rob Show. “That’s fine that’s how the process works.”

Ballots seem to be streaming in at a faster pace during this runoff election than they did in the first round, according to the daily statistics released by the Denver elections division.

Through the first five days of voting during the runoff — May 23-27 — 30,553 ballots had been returned to the elections division.

In the first five days of voting for the May 3 election, 22,120 ballots had been returned.

It’s unclear whether the higher number means there will be a higher turnout when ballots are counted a week from today. It may be that voters are just sending them in earlier. Or it may be that the highly publicized campaigns of Chris Romer and Michael Hancock are starting to get noticed.

In the May 3 election, 116,020 voted ballots were returned, or nearly 39 percent of the ballots that were mailed out.

To be counted by the June 7 deadline, voters must mail their ballots by this Friday.

They may also turn them in to voter service centers or the main election headquarters up until 7 p.m. on Tuesday, June 7.

Chris Romer on Monday said he has not appreciated the outside help his campaign has gotten from independent political committees and wishes they would stop.

Romer, walking door to door in northwest Denver on Memorial Day, paused for an interview with reporters and said the fliers sent out by the independent Citizens for Accountability have been “too sharp.”

Romer said both he and his wife have received them at home and have not liked the tone — some of which question Romer’s opponent Michael Hancock’s belief in evolution and his vote on a pay raise.

“We don’t control advertisements by that independent group,” Romer said. “In some cases it’s been inaccurate. It’s been over the top. And I clearly want them to stop.”

But today some Denver residents received another glossy mailer from the group, saying that Hancock gave himself “a huge raise — putting himself above our schools and first responders.”

Romer said questioning Hancock’s pay raise vote, as he did in a commercial that has been since pulled, is “fair game.”

The next mayor will likely have to ask city workers to take a pay cut, which he says will be even more difficult to do after elected officials agreed to a pay raise earlier this spring.

Hancock indeed had voted against the pay raise and then changed his mind and supported it. The 6.6 percent raise for the incoming elected officials — council members, the auditor, clerk and recorder and mayor — will be delayed for the first two years and then the officials will get half in 2013 and the second half in 2014.

Ministers from the Latino Ministry Coalition and Greater Metro Denver Ministerial Alliance stand in support of candidate Michael Hancock.

In what mayoral candidate Michael Hancock’s campaign billed as unprecedented, Latino and African-American ministers, joined by a rabbi, gathered in Civic Center Park today to voice their support for his candidacy.

The event is said to be the first where the Latino Ministry Alliance and Greater Metro Denver Alliance have joined forces to publicly endorse a mayoral candidate.

In a statement, Butch Montoya, director of HS Power & Light Ministry, noted Hancock’s positive message of bringing every neighborhood together as a reason for his support of the city councilman.

“This is a time for partnership and collaboration, not a time to drive a wedge between communities that have long worked together for the collective good of our city,” said Montoya.

Montoya previously supported James Mejia and volunteered on his campaign.

When Mejia endorsed Chris Romer, it surprised Montoya because he felt Mejia and Hancock were closer on the issues.

“It was clear I was then going to support Hancock, in terms of policy and vision for the city,” said Montoya.

Rep. Scott Tipton, R-Cortez, says he didn't know about his daughter using his name in letters to Congress members until the media asked him about it

WASHINGTON — Rep. Scott Tipton said he didn’t know his daughter was dropping his name in sales pitches to other members of Congress until the media asked him about it last week.

Tipton told “The Cari and Rob Show” in an interview this morning, “I had no personal connection with this issue at all, nor did my office.”

Tipton’s 22-year-old daughter, Elizabeth, in March sent letters to other members of Congress on behalf of Broadnet, a communications company owned by Tipton’s nephew, starting with “I am Congressman Tipton’s daughter … I am currently working with Broadnet, and we do telephone town hall meetings.”

Elizabeth Tipton has worked as a D.C.-based government relations specialist for Broadnet since January and her father used a Broadnet vendor, called IConstituent, for office communication and an April 2011 teletown hall. House rules specifically ban members from supporting commercial enterprises, and a member’s name cannot be used to support any commercial enterprise. Read more…

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WASHINGTON — Read the last paragraph of former Congressman Tom Tancredo’s essay on World Net Daily and you’d think the Douglas County Republican and illegal immigration vocal leader may be testing the waters for a 2012 presidential bid.

“Not one of the 2012 Republican candidates has a passing grade on illegal immigration, and not one of them is discussing this problem openly with the American people,” Tancredo wrote in an essay published over the weekend. “I hope one of the current candidates will step up and address this issue. If that does not happen soon, I do know one person willing to give that issue the attention it deserves on the 2012 national stage.”

But Tancredo told me Tuesday morning that he is not running yet — but he hasn’t ruled it out.

“Would I consider it? Unless we can encourage some or all of the folks, maybe even one of the folks, presently surveying that scene to take on the issue that I feel they should … I would consider it again,” he said. “But I have hope, I have great hope, that indeed someone will do that soon.”

Tancredo said he is carefully watching Minnesota Congresswoman and Tea Party pick Michele Bachmann, who in the past has spoken out against amnesty, but has not yet announced a presidential bid. (Though she is expected to do so next month in Waterloo, Iowa.)

Tancredo said the essay was meant to encourage the GOP candidates in the field to be outspoken on the issue.

He said running for president in 2008 “was a lot of fun and all that, but it’s also a very arduous undertaking and so I certainly don’t think, ‘Gee, what will I do tomorrow? I’ll run for president!’,” he said. “I just hope what I can do with this is fire up the pressure to put on these people so they start discussing and talking about it.”

House Minority Leader Sal Pace confirmed today what everybody at the Capitol suspected all session: He’s running for Congress.

The Pueblo Democrat plans to challenge Rep. Scott Tipton, R-Cortez, who unseated U.S. Rep. John Salazar in November.

“It’s a big step for me and my young family, one I don’t take lightly,” said Pace, whose wife is due with their third child in September.

“But I’ve now seen how Scott Tipton votes back inside that Beltway. He voted –- and strongly defends –- the Ryan plan ending Medicare as we know it. He won’t support projects like the Roaring Fork’s Regional Transportation Authority that will help solve some of the challenges faced by our local communities. He’s not paying enough attention to issues like Pinon Canyon or Fort Lewis’ Native American tuition waiver.”

But will Pace and Tipton wind up in the same district, and a district that is winnable by a Democrat?

The normally outspoken Pace was unusually silent this year when Democrats unveiled their first set of redistricting maps, which placed Pueblo in with El Paso County. The matter is now before a judge.

Our Denver Post/ 9News mayoral poll released Sunday revealed City Councilman Michael Hancock holds a strong 10-point lead over former state Sen. Chris Romer with one week until Election Day.

Local political analysts Rick Ridder and Katy Atkinson, stopped by the debut of Inside the Mile High (a show that features insight from reporters and local/ state figures) to share their thoughts on the poll and what it means as Denver prepares to elect its 45th mayor.

Watch:

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The city is facing a $100 million budget shortfall, $30 million of which is a systemic problem that needs to be fixed, and one suggestion has been to change the city’s election cycle.

At a city council meeting last week the idea was floated to move the springtime municipal elections to coincide with the Congressional elections that occur on the first Tuesday in November on even years.

The move would save Denver $1.7 million every other year, according to Denver’s chief financial officer Ed Scholz.

Scholz also said some cities have gone to “preferential voting,” a ballot structure that allows voters rank candidates in order of preference. A voter could pick one candidate as his or her first choice and another as the No. 2 choice. That would allow for an instant runoff and eliminate the need for a runoff election that this year will last for more than a month, culminating on June 7 when ballots are counted.

In odd years, November’s coordinated elections are typically held to pick school board members and sometimes include city ballot issues. Denver Public Schools pays for its election.

In even years the city must pay for the congressional election, so Scholz said it would make sense to combine the municipal election with the Congressional one.

Most candidates in this year’s municipal election announced their intention to run in November of December, which means the campaign has been going on for a half a year. Candidates have raised millions of dollars and flooded the airwaves with commercials and mailboxes with literature.

Moving the election day would likely need to be approved by voters because it would require a change to the city’s charter.

Expect more of these types of ideas to emerge as the city works with a task force to develop a list of recommendations to give to the incoming mayor, who must submit his budget to City Council by September with approval by November.

Joey Bunch has been a reporter for 28 years, including the last 12 at The Denver Post. For various newspapers he has covered the environment, water issues, politics, civil rights, sports and the casino industry.